Generally, a pedestrian protecting apparatus for a vehicle is provided with a collision sensor arranged at the front portion of the vehicle, and a position determination sensor arranged in a passenger compartment of the vehicle, for example, referring to JP-2003-104143A. In this case, an obstacle colliding with the vehicle is determined to be a pedestrian, when the collision between the vehicle and the obstacle is detected by the collision sensor and the intrusion of the obstacle into a predetermined region on the hood is thereafter detected by the position determination sensor. Then, an airbag is deployed on the hood of the vehicle.
However, the obstacle other than the pedestrian can also intrude into the predetermined region on the hood. For example, in the case where the vehicle collides with a two-stage-stacked object such as a wooden box and a corrugated cardboard box, the upper-stage member of the wooden box or the like will enter the predetermined region on the hood to be determined as the pedestrian. Thus, the unnecessary actuation of the airbag will be caused.